Transformers Animated: Heritage of Flesh and Steel
by Zer Author
Summary: Sari Sumdac and her Autobot friends have saved the day, caught the villain, and come home to find themselves heroes. But peace is short-lived when power runs rampant, enemies new and old are creeping out of the dark, and it seems that the heritage of a Techno-Organic holds more mystery than anyone could have expected.
1. Chapter 1

Standard Disclaimer: The characters, setting, and basic premise of the series Transformers Animated is not my intellectual property, but belong to Hasbro and any affiliated media producers.

Author Note: First posted story! Woo! I've been working on this for a while, so it's the first thing I've uploaded, and I intend to keep writing it for a while. Updates should be be pretty regular at first as I work through my backlog; however, I have a lot of things to juggle, so expect updates to slow down eventually. Anyway, I hope people like this, and post plenty of reviews.

Chapter 1

Professor Issac Sumdac wiped off his gloves nervously, and ran his hands through his shock of black hair, trying to tame the wild mane sticking straight up from his head. His lab coat was freshly cleaned and pressed, and his pants entirely without the common stains of his work; those who did not know him better, might have assumed he was leaving for a date. Instead, he was pacing impatiently before the view screen installed in his office, waiting for his daughter to call.

Others might have found it odd to dress up so well for a simple call from a close family member, but Sari had always worried about leaving him alone, afraid that her absent-minded father might forget the essentials (like food, sleep, or clothing) while under the thrall of his muse. So he was determined to show her that he was perfectly capable of caring for himself, so that she could enjoy herself without worrying about him (and never mind that his secretary bot had to keep reminding him that motor oil was not edible).

[Beep Beep Beep] The view screen rang with the incoming call, and Issac jammed down the acceptance button with a cry of, "SARI! It's so good to-Oh My Goodness! Sari!" he cried a second time as he averted his gaze. "Young lady!" he scolded as he covered his eyes.

"Oh! Hi daddy!" answered Sari Sumdacc, looking between her legs at her father's face. "What's w…" In a flash of insight, she realized why her father was refusing to look at her, and straightened with an "EEP!", hurriedly brushing down her skirt as she spun around to face the screen. She knew better than to bend over with a dress this short! "Sorry! Sorry Daddy. I dropped something just as i was calling, and…oh sparks I'm so embarrassed." The adopted daughter of Issac Sumdac felt her cheeks flush as she looked away.

"No harm done, no harm done," consoled Issac, opening his eyes after a quick check to make sure the coast was clear. He rejoiced at this chance to see his daughter again, drinking in the sight of her caramel skin, so like his own, and her apple red hair, done up into two tufts. She was still wearing her favorite yellow-orange dress, with the stabilizers of her jetpack curving up over her shoulders. And her eyes…even now, Issac had trouble tearing his own eyes from Sari's electric blue orbs, so very different from the rusty brown gaze she had been born with. "Now, how's my little girl doing?" he crooned. "Are the Autobots feeding you right?"

"I'm doing great Daddy!" cheered Sari. "They don't have human food here, but i can eat Cybertronain style just fine. Still, Energon has nothing on a Bott Burger."

"Energon?" Issac felt his interest spike. "I've always wondered, what does it taste like?"

Sari's face fell as she groaned, "Diet. Soda."

"Oof," sighed Issac, wincing in sympathy. His daughter had long professed a deep disdain for diet drinks, claiming them to be abominations that missed the entire point of drinking the stuff in the first place. "Do you know how long you're going to be staying?" he asked, careful to keep his voice as neutral as possible.

"Well, Ratchet's got this other Doc Bot he wants me to see, some expert on Cybertronian mutations; and then the Cybertron Council wants to see me. And after that…well, i don't know."

"You know i miss you, right?" Issac felt his voice wobble slightly, and forced it to calm. "And i love you very, very much."

"I love you too, Daddy, and i miss you just as much. Don't worry, i'll come home soon!"

"Good," nodded Issac. "And when you do, i'll take you out for some real food."

"That'd be wonderful," replied Sari with a bright smile. "Bye Daddy. I'll see you soon. Oh, and tell Captain Falzone hi from me!"

The view screen blinked off, and Issac slumped slightly as the animation seeped out of his body.

"So she's not coming back, eh?" grunted Police Captain Falzone, as he leaned against a tesla coil, ignorant of its instability. "Too bad. I kinda miss the little squir-ir-irt!" he cried as the off balance scrap collapsed on top of him. "This is why i hate machines," he grumbled from underneath the heap.

"Captain, i have no doubt that Sari will be back when she is ready. Until then…" he bent over to help the Captain up. "All we can do is be patient."

"Sari? Sari!"

"I'm in here, Ratchet!" she replied as the view screen stopped humming.

The Medical Autobot clomped into the (relatively) small storage space she had claimed as her bedroom, optics wandering across the room until he spotted her. Even now, after weeks on Cybertron with the doc bot, she had to fight not to look twice when seeing him. The restoration of Arcee and Omega Supreme, as well as the return to familiar surroundings, had left the Medic in a much happier place than he had been before, and Sari sometimes had trouble seeing the grumpy old bot in the newer, happier model; especially when he smiled.

"Time to go!" he declared, kneeling to put his face closer to hers. It's already four cycles past midday, and Epidata is not a very patient bot!"

"Really? Then I can see why you're still friends with him then," snorted Sari as she activated her jetpack, rising up to Ratchet's face on a stream of superheated air, letting her built in helmet fasten itself around her face. "Well come on slowpoke", she cried as she opened the throttle, "Time to GOOooooooo!"

"Are you sure this guy's really an expert?" murmured Sari as she looked around at the cluttered expanse. Everything in Cybertron was dramatically oversized to her, built for gigantic robots who out massed her a hundred thousand times over, but the sheer bulk of junk that filled the 'Waiting Room' was enough to leave her feeling claustrophobic.

"Yes i'm sure," snapped Ratchet. "I've known the bot for nearly 900 stellar cycles, so i should be able to identify his expertise."

"Yeah, well, you're friend's office looks more like a junkyard than a doctors office."

"Well, what do you expect? He can't study new and unique Cyberforms without samples, can he?"

"Samples? Ratchet, you told me your friend was just going to scan me!"

"He is, he is!" replied Ratchet as the door to the inner office was buzzed open. "The samples are from strictly non sentient subjects! Epi would no more harm you than i…!"

"IS THIS IT?!" roared a mechanical monstrosity that burst from behind a stack of data discs. Ruby red optics gleamed with hunger as the monster's mandibled jaws opened wide. "IS THIS THE TEST SUBJECT, THE TECHNO-ORGANIC?! IT IS, ISN'T IT! HOW GLORIOUS! HURRY, HURRY, WE MUST GET IT TO THE TESTING SLAB SO I CAN DISSECT IT!"

"Aiiieeee!" shrieked Sari as she threw out a hand. Immediately her hand unfolded and spread, revealing a glowing energy projector buried in her palm; the blaster glowed for a millisecond, then launched a blue white orb of destructive energy directly at the gruesome visage. The subsequent explosion missed most of the creatures face, simply blowing off one of its eyebrow horns as the majority of the destructive energies atomized a pile of stasis containers.

"Die Decepticon scum!" she shouted as she charged another shot, only to halt as Ratchet got in her way.

"Slag it, Epidata, you scoundrel! That! Wasn't! Funny!"

"Yes it was, yes it was," retorted the newly identified Autobot doctor. "That was hilarious! And it's nice to know you weren't exaggerating! She really is a delightfully destructive little thing, isn't she?" he said as he examined his scorched horn.

"Wait a minute," interrupted Sari. "Are you telling me that this is the famous doctor you were taking me to see?"

"That's right! Professor Epidata of the School of Cybertronian Archeological and Mutagenic studies! And let me just say what an honor it is…"

"But he looks like a CON!"

"Oh! Come now," chuckled the bot as he cheerfully reached up and pulled off his face. "Surely you don't think you _organic's_ are the only ones to make use of masks, do you?" The features underneath Epidata's disguise were much less frightful, with big blue optics resembling spectacles perched above a bulbous nose (or some Autobot equivalent), and an array of antenna covering his head like a shock of pointy hair. His shell, now that she could see it, was covered in an eye watering mixture of luminescent yellow and surgical pink, and his servo's were long and delicately tapered; oddly enough, the scientist reminded her of her dad (despite the dramatic physical differences), with the same air of friendliness and absent-minded cheer.

"Still, that wasn't a very nice thing to do to your guest," berated Ratchet as the other bot began ambling away, tossing his mask on a nearby pile of miscellaneous.

"Nonsense! It was a perfect way to make her feel at home, and welcome her to our great, big, Cybertronian family! I probably managed to work several years of diplomatic effort in under thirty seconds!" cried the bot as he threw himself onto a chair that was only half covered in paperwork.

Ratchet rubbed his processor dome and sighed, "i'm sorry about him, Sari. He's an absolute genius in his field, but outside it he's never managed to grow up."

"No problem," retorted Sari cheerfullly. "I used to live with Bumblebee, remember? I can handle dealing with this guy…i mean bot!"

"Hey! Bumblebee? I'm not as bad as all that…am i?" A dry look from each of them was all the answer he needed. "Well slag; I might need to tone it down a bit after all." He shook himself, and refocused. "But that's neither here nor there. Now, how can i help you?"

"Uhuh. Uhuh. Uhuh." Sari suppressed the urge to call out, wriggle, argue, or do something destructive as she listened to Epidata's mutterings. She had never appreciated sitting still, and she had never liked visiting the doctors office. Being stuck with both at once? If she had not previously promised Ratchet to be on her very best behavior, she would have broken something already, or perhaps several somethings; in any case, she certainly wouldn't have been lying here on this cold, hard, scanner bed. As it was, she took small comfort in Ratchet's own posture of boredom, slumped up against a cylinder labeled **Cyrogenics**.

"Uhuh. Uh….Huh. Hm? Hmph. Uhuh. Uh- **BY THE ALL SPARK**!" Sari and Ratchet jumped up in unison as the Mutations Expert managed to simultaneously shout, drop his data pad, leap into the air, and knock over half a dozen piles of junk in one motion.

"What, what?" complained Ratchet as he scooped up the fallen pad. "Is there something wrong?"

"Yeah, what the slag?" called Sar as she clambered to her knees.

"YOU!" Epidata thrust an authoritive finger in Sari's direction. "Stay on the table! And you!" An accusatory digit brandished itself in Ratchets face, and Epidata opened his mouth to keep shouting, before a thought occurred to him. "What sort of Diagnostic Equipment did you have on that organic world; Dirt, or whatever it's called."

"It's called Earth, and the equipment i had consisted of whatever i could salvage from Omega Supreme, and some adapted technology so primitive they're still using electricity to power it."

"Oh. Well then, i suppose i can't really blame you for missing this."

"Missing what?" Ratchet peered down at the data pad, mouth twisting into a frown.

"This." Epidata's manipulator appendage stabbed at a very specific line of data, and Sari watched as the normally imperturbable Doc Bot let his jaw drop.

"This can't be right," muttered Ratchet incredulously.

"What, so you're accusing me of not knowing my job?"

"No, never, but…this is impossible."

"What's impossible? What are you looking at?" demanded Sari as she stalked towards the table edge.

"Stay on the table!" ordered both Bots in unison without looking up.

"Either you tell me what it is that's got you so worked up, or i come over there to look myself!"

"It's just…this is impossible," stammered Ratchet.

"Well, obviously not," retorted Epidata as he clomped over to a nearby computer, and brought up a set of statistics on the gigantic screen. "Okay, this is you. Sort of."

Sari blinked at the scree full of gibberish. "Uh, Epi? I'm nine, even if i don't look it. You might need to explain a bit more than that."

"Oh? Ratchet informed me that you have…what did he call it? 'An unnatural ability to bypass years of schooling an experience to orchestrate miracles despite being a titchy little protoform child."

"Yeah, when i'm trying to solve their problems," replied Sari, ignoring the insult, save for a raised eyebrow. "I can learn what's wrong, because the machines know what's wrong, and what needs to happen, and they tell me. That doesn't mean i suddenly understand quantum physics, or stuff like that."

"Then let me put this into perspective for you," began Epidata. "If i had found this data anywhere else, or if someone other than Ratchet had brought you, or if i had not seen you sitting on the scan table this entire time, i would automatically have assumed that everything on this screen is complete and utter nonsense."

"But i'm right here…?"

"You don't understand, i know you're there. You're existence is not what's in question, its what my science has to say about you; if this information had not been brought to my attention by sources that i trusted utterly, i would immediately have assumed that they were wrong, or lying, because the data i've accumulated here is completely impossible according to the commonly accepted laws of Cybertronian biology and technology. As it is, i know this is real, because i trust Ratchet, and i trust my equipment, and the subject is standing right in front of my optics; though i'll probably scan my optics later, to make sure i can trust them too."

"I don't understand. I'm…i'm not that weird. Am i?"

"Weird? My dear you're probably unique in the history of all Techno-organics everywhere, assuming we can even call you that."

"What?!"

"Oh, you're not technically a techno-organic creature."

"What? But-but…Ratchet said! And Dad! And i look human, and i'm part robot…"

"Or rather," corrected Epidata as he rushed to reassure his guest, "it'd be more accurate to say that if you're a techno-organic, then all the other so called Techno-Organics are actually rather poorly made fakes."

"All the other…I thought Blackarachnia was…"

"The only one?" Epidata chuckled as he pulled up a registry of what were recognizably Autobots, despite the various claws, fangs, tails, and in one case, fur. "A common, if laughable, misconception. Cybertronians are, as a race and individuals, extremely mutable. We have to be; we switch forms regularly, we altar our appearance to match the nature of nearby machines, and we posses a diversity in body types and capabilities that outpaces most ecosystems. We're practically built for the purpose of encouraging mutation and divergence, and if mutations towards a more organic nature are less common, it is mostly because of our aversion towards inhabiting the same planet as organic creatures. So no, it is not a very rare condition. You, however, are something else entirely. You see, most Techno-Organ mixtures just fuse the two together to create a creature that's half of one, and then half of the other. You, however, have actually hybridized your two natures into one, resulting in…"

"O-Kay! That's great. Now repeat that in English!"

Epidata slumped mid word, and shot Sari a look of exasperation. "Okay, simplifying that to Monkey Speak…"

"Hey!"

"Hush you." Epidata fiddled with his hand held console, and a new set of pictures popped on the screen. "In the simplest terms i've got, this is a representation of a normal Cybertronian, Autobot or Decepticon," he said as he pointed at picture of something that looked a length of rope, made up of hundreds of red cords wrapped up around each other. "And this is your typical Cybertronian-Organic Mix." A second picture came up; another length of rope, except that this time each of the cords was striped with segments of blue across the red. "And this is you, a true Techno-Organic." Another rope, this time made of pure purple cord.

"So what does it mean?"

Epidata's jaw dropped. "Whuh! I jus-i-by the All Spark, i can't simplify it any more than that!"

"Hey! I understand it, i just don't know what it means! It's like…the striped one is where you mix screws made of copper and steel, and my string is like if you just melted them together into one type of metal, and recast them. I get that! I just don't know what the difference means in regards to me!"

"And before you start commenting," interjected Ratchet with a warning glare, "Epi, I'd like to say that i could use a little refresher on the subject myself."

"…Really, Ratchet?"

"Yes, really! I was trained to work on BOTS, not Techno-Organic something or others. Not everyone is a science geek."

Epidata grumbled to himself for a bit, then said, "So, Sari? What do you know about Autobots?"

"That they're robots?"

"Essentially inaccurate," snorted the Science bot, "but close enough for our purposes. Now, what do you remember about Blackarachnia? What did she look like?"

Sari shared a puzzled look with Ratchet, wondering where the Science Bot was going with this. "She was purple? She turned into a spider?"

"No, no. What did she make you think of when you saw her? What did she resemble?"

"She looked…mechanical?"

"Exactly! She was still a bot, but she had some extra organic goo mixed in with her gears! You on the other hand…" he brought up yet another image, this time of a cluster of cells….except that they weren't, really. Not cells she recognized, anyway. They were shaped wrong, and they were missing bits like the…what was it called…that important bit in the middle where it kept DNA; they were also a metallic grey, with lines of blue running through the edges. "This is a picture of the tissue I scanned. As you can see, your body's structure is still very much in the style of an organic. But your….What do you call these things?"

"They're called cells," Sari explained, brow furrowed, "and they look like they're made of metal."

"Because they are…sort of. Your body's built like an Organic, but it's made of Cybertronian materials. So you're both Organic and mechanical at the same time, unlike those other Hybrids, who are only half of each. Heck, with the right technology we could split you in two, and you'd make two perfectly normal organisms who just happen to be different species."

"That's…kinda gross to think about. But it's cool to think i'm so awesome!" She struck a heroic pose with arms stretched out as she called out, "All Cybertron! All Human! And all ready to kick Tailplate!."

"Yes that's…" Epidata paused as he realized what Sari had just said. "Um, about that?" he muttered slowly. "What you said about being Cybertronian? Wellll, it turns out i might have mislead you a bit," admitted Epidata sheepishly. "Oh, make no mistake, you are definitely Techno-Organic. But you are not Cybertronian."

"What?" shouted Sari. "But…the protoform! That had to be Cybertronian"

"I'm with Sari here," rasped Ratchet "I'll admit your readings are a bit strange, but there's no need to leap to such a ridiculous conclusion. Besides, i scanned her myself, and poor equipment or not, i know Cybertron tech when i see it!"

"Sari, a Cybertronian Protoform could never have managed what you did. The best it could do, would be something like what Blackarachnia has achieved, and even that would be chancy at best. And Ratchet, the reason your results looked Cybertronian was because you were looking at them the wrong way. You see, it doesn't look Cybertronian, Cybertronian tech looks like it."

"You don't mean…"

"Exactly."

"HELLO?" shouted Sari, annoyed at being ignored. "Non bot here! Please translate!"

"It's not widely known," explained Ratchet, his habitual contrariness all but absent from his voice, "but a lot of our most impressive tech wasn't actually created by the Cybertronians. We found it, used it, and adapted it for our own use, but the original design came from someone else. Someone who existed before we did, and left behind things like the Space Bridges, or the Protoform Forge…or the Allspark."

"Or you, Sari," concurred Epidata. "Or your key, for that matter. Whoever, or whatever, it was that made your protoform, and sent it to Earth, it was the same something that made our most valuable treasures."

"Wow," said Sari dryly. "Way to make a girl feel special."


	2. Chapter 2-Learning

Author's Note: I honestly meant to get this up sooner, but then life interfered, and it has the veto; for now, anyway. In any case, a quick reminder that the idea's I'm basing this and any future chapters on are the intellectual property of others, not me. I am also adapting many ideas from other fanfics, so a shout out to all the awesome writers out there; my introduction in particular was heavily inspired by Fictionfan1024's Sari's Beyond End Game, and the time-measurements I'm using were simply stolen from Vixen Tail. Anyway, I'll try avoid outright copying any ideas, and hope I do my muses proud with this.

So please, read, enjoy, and comment, because I can't make it better without your help.

* * *

Chapter 2- Learning

Sari sighed, and let her helmet's faceplate retract. "Okay, this is…just a little too strange for me. First I'm just a normal girl, then I'm half Cybertronian, and now you're saying that I'm not Cybertronian at all?" The young girl shook her head in a mixture of confusion and frustration. "I can't deal with this right now."

Epidata frowned as he looked at Sari, puzzled by her obvious unhappiness. This was a happy moment, right? Finding out she had been blessed by the unknown Founders themselves, that was good news right? But before he could ask, he heard Ratchet interrupt with a hurried, "So, what sort of antics can we expect from this little sparkling?"

"Eh? What?" It took the scientist a few seconds to realize that the medic was speaking too him, and even then he missed the point entirely. "I'm sure I don't know what you mean?"

"I mean," continued Ratchet as he gestured descriptively in Sari's direction while she wasn't looking, "that I want to know what a real techno-organic can do, so I know just how well I should child-proof my lab."

"Oh? Oh!" responded Epidata as he got the message, accepting the distraction with a smile. "Well, what can't she do? I wasn't kidding when I said it's like she's one of each instead of half of both." The science bot pulled up yet another set of schematics, and grabbed a collapsible pointer. "She…you," he said as he directed his speech towards a suddenly alert Sari, "are equally capable of functioning as a pure organic creature, as well as an entirely Cybertronian one. Your body can extract all its necessary energy needs from organic fuels, and your organic parts can run itself off Energon and scraps. You'll probably do better with a mix of methods, but you can survive on either."

"No way," breathed Sari. "You mean I can eat metal?"

"Child, by the looks of this," he pointed at something vaguely resembling a human stomach, "digesting metal would be easy. Heck, you could probably digest star matter, with a bit of work. Well, that and a systems ache."

"Wait," interrupted Ratchet with a sharp look. This was important. "If Sari's as robotic as you're suggesting, does that mean she could survive a vacuum?"

"Yeaa-no. Oh sure, she could _technically_ enter a vacuum, and her mechanical parts would work just fine, but I imagine it would be much like drowning eternally without being able to die, assuming I read that text about human biology right. Her body still thinks it needs to breath, and if you just dumped it in a place with no air, it'd just keep trying, forever. On the other hand, the gaseous make-up of the atmosphere would probably be moot. You could likely breathe anything from oxygen to methane, so long as there's enough to fill your lungs. Otherwise, I'd suggest you keep using your helmet."

"No fear," responded Sari with a shudder. That line about drowning eternally was extremely disturbing, especially when spoken in such cheerful tones; only a creature who didn't breath could joke about suffocation. She resolved to keep her helmet on whenever there was the slightest chance of space walking.

"'No fear?' Such an odd language you have," replied Epidata with a smile. "If Ratchet hadn't told me about your…what do you call them? Idiotem? Well, then I'd be totally lost, instead of just really confused." The click of a button brought up a picture of something resembling a human brain. "Another thing to keep watch for is your processor upgrades."

"Her what!" shouted Ratchet.

"Processor upgrades. Don't tell me you're _surprised_?"

"Of course I'm surprised! What do mean, processor upgrades? I swear by the all-spark if you're trying to advance her into a warrior…!"

"What! Who do you think I am, Megatron?! Or Sentinel Prime?! I meant the upgrades she's making, you dim bulb! Seriously, accusing me of making sparkling warrior mods, the nerve!" Epidata's outrage was entertaining as it was sincere, and Sari fought the urge to giggle at the scientist's manic gestures, trying hard to listen to his explanation. "I don't exactly have scans of what her brain was like before," Epidata continued once he calmed down, "but I do know what an eight year old human brain looks like, and Sari's looks nothing like that. And I don't just mean biologically either, her brain is actually advancing itself at an accelerated rate."

"Oh." Ratchet looked away, grimacing in shame. "I'm sorry for exploding like that. It's just…"

"No, no," interrupted Epidata, back to his usual state of good cheer. "I understand, I do. I was the same way when I took my youngest to the Medic's Ward; I nearly lit the place on fire when they told me they were putting him on frame building stimulants. Course, I found out later that he actually did have a condition; very embarrassing, as I'm sure you know."

"But, Sari's not…" Ratchet protested, before he caught Epidta's knowing look, and simply shut up in embarrassment.

"So," continued Epidata once he was finished watching Ratchet squirm, "this probably all started with that key you told me about; it would fit the likely timetable, at least. Do you have it?"

"No," admitted Ratchet. "The key's back home, locked safely in a safe, and I don't know why you'd want it, since the damn thing's outta power."

"That's beside the point, so just make sure you bring it next time. Now where were we before your rude interruption…ah, yes. Processor upgrades! Now, before your upgrade, when you were smaller, I think, and I'm just guessing here, but I think that your organic half was dominant. Essentially, you were all but human. But then when you used that key on yourself, you forcibly activated your Cybertronian nature, and forced your physical state into a greater state of maturity. Your processor, however, was left behind. Except now…tell me, have you been feeling different? In your head?"

"Uh…" Sari thought back, trying to compare herself as she was now, to how she was before. "I'm…not sure. Maybe a bit…calmer?"

Epidata nodded in delight, clapping his hands together. "That's your processor trying to catch up with your body. It can't just bring itself up to date instantaneously, since that would wreck your circuits, so instead it's accelerating the process. If I had to speculate, and that's…really, that's all I'm going to be doing for a long, long time; then your processor is advancing about five times faster than a human of comparable age. So, for the next year or so, you'll be feeling increasingly steady and mature, and your thoughts will increase in clarity, until you processor reaches a state of maturity comparable to your physical form."

"Oh goody," muttered Sari, pouting.

"Is this a problem?"

"No, no. She's just upset that she won't be able to keep saying, 'Of course I disobeyed, I'm only eight after all,'" explained Ratchet with a chuckle.

"Oh…I don't get it."

Ratchet waved away the scientist's puzzled expression, and instead asked, "By the way, did you ever find out why she ended going berserk, that time when she upgraded herself?" He tried, and failed to keep his question casual, and winced when he saw Sari's eyes narrow.

"Key again," replied Epidata blithely. "When her body became so advanced, and her processor was left behind, she didn't have enough free processing power to control all the different new mods she had. Not to mention all that All Spark Energy that was running around her body. But now, with her increased maturity, she could probably handle having some of her mods reactivated. Heck," he blurted as the thought occurred to him, "why don't we take care of that now!"

"Wait, you mean they're still there!" cried Sari. "I thought they went away when the key did! Spark yeah let's activate them!"

"Let's. Not," countered Ratchet firmly. "Considering the amount of damage that occurred the last time you were working at full capacity, we should probably hold off on encouraging an encore event. I, for one, have no interest in blowing up the lab."

"Oh, it'd be considerably more than the lab, I assure you. This is All Spark energy we're talking about. If Sari were to self detonate, you'd probably take out most everything within a hundred miles. At minimum. Which, in retrospect, is an excellent reason to leave things as they are," admitted Epidata as his face fell.

"Oh." Even the Science bot could see Sari was distressed by what he had said, and he hastily tried to control the damage.

"Not to worry, you'll still get your mods back! From what I can see, your body should activate your mods automatically when it decides it's the right time! It's a fairly common practice for young bots with powers too strong for their judgment," he explained.

"No, that's not what I'm worried about. It's just…I almost destroyed EVERYTHING! One stupid mistake, and I almost level the entire city!" Sari shouted, tears in her eyes. "My dad, my friends, all those people…"

"Hey now, that wasn't your fault!" argued Ratchet.

"Wasn't it!" cried Sari. "And I almost just did it again! I just...asked for my sparkly toys back, and I forgot about why I'd lost them in the first place! I'm such an idiot!" She pounded on her helmet with her hands, and then yelped when soft flesh impacted with the hard metal.

"Not an idiot, just young," retorted Ratchet as he bent down to put his head next to Sari's. "A young girl who always want to help us. Always. And that means that the more you can do to help us, the happier you are." He smiled in remembrance as he continued, "I can still remember how proud you were when you charged right in, and rescued Bumblebee from that rock monster. How happy you were, that you'd helped us. And to me, that far outweighs some accident that was partly our fault! We should have remembered all the strength you've shown in the past, and let you come along to help. And you should be proud of possessing such courage, and remember that even as a human, you were a valued ally to us. Besides," he reassured her, "it's not like that explosion can ever happen again, now that all the energy is gone."

"Oh no, the energy's still there," countered Epidata absently, focused on a data-console. "Probably always going to be there, considering how persistent All Spark energy can be." He suddenly realized what he had just said, and hurriedly continued, "But Ratchet is correct, there shouldn't be any more explosions. The energy has stabilized itself, and should be almost entirely dormant until you draw on it. You'd really have to throw your spark into it to trigger cascade reaction now; well that, or get disintegrated. That would probably do it too."

"Oh." Sari managed to look reassured and severely ill at the same time, a feat Ratchet wished he could emulate. As it was, he was forced to settle for smacking Epidata on the back of the head.

[CLANG!] "OUCH! What was that for?"

"Tact!" shouted Ratchet.

"Wait…you're upset at me for a lack of tact? By the All Spark!" He spun to Sari with an expression of pure horror and shame, crying, "My dear bot I must apologize for what has certainly been absolutely atrocious behavior! I can't believe I've been so horrific, and can only hope you forgive me for unknowingly brutalizing your tender circuits with my…" [CLANG!] "OUCH!"


	3. Chapter 3- Warmly Unwelcomed

Author Note: Wow, this looked a lot bigger when i was writing; I honestly had no idea this was such a short chapter, though the term's are of course relevant. Anyway, this one was a bit trickier than the others, surprisingly. It required several rather severe rewritings in multiple places, though I'm rather pleased with the way it worked out in the end. Anyway, please enjoy, and I always look forward to commentary.

* * *

A few Breems later, the two of them wandered out of Epidata's office, promising to return later, this time with Sari's key. Epi had been able to tell them little else after explaining about Sari's glut of energy. There were simply too many things about her that had never been seen before, and that meant that they simply had to wait and see.

"Well, that was interesting," deadpanned Sari, before she broke into a smile. "Epi's a great guy. Did you see how he pretended not to mind when I sneezed all over his computers? And he waited until we were gone before he started disinfecting them."

"Yeah, Epi's a good bot," agreed Ratchet as he raised a hand to his comlink, answering the call he had put on hold in the lab. "Ratchet here, so what do you want?" he demanded briskly.

"Ratchet, where the Spark have you been?" The medic bot winced at the anger in Optimus's voice, so different from his usual noble tones.

"At Epi's office, where I said we'd be!" shouted Ratchet.

"The parade is starting in two Breems!" retorted Prime.

"What parade?" grumbled the Medic sourly.

"The parade I've been telling you about for the past two Orns! The parade where they take us through the city, with the All-Spark, all the way to the central chambers, where the Council itself will present us with honors! That parade!"

"I didn't hear anything about a parade," snorted Ratchet, scratching at his chin.

"I personally told you three times!"

"Well I'm sorry," growled Ratchet. "But I musta missed that memo, since I was more worried about getting Sari here to the closest thing we have to an expert in unique Cybertronian species!"

Optimus sighed deeply, before replying, "I understand, Ratchet, and I think it's very noble of you to focus on Sari's care like this, but you have to remember that a lot of the decisions to made about Sari will be made by the council. And the more on her side they are, the easier it'll be to get her what she nee..." Ratchet's exact wording finally caught up to Optimus's train of thought, and the Cybertronian leader yelled, "What? What did you say?"

"That if you can't be bothered to worry about..."

"Don't, Ratchet. Just tell me what you meant by unique species."

"Just what it means. Epi swears he's never even heard about something like Sari, not even in the ancient Cybertronian histories, which means that she counts as an entirely new species of life. The first of her kind, ever."

"I see." Even over the comlink, Ratchet could hear the little gears winding away in Optimus's head. Recorded Cybertronian history went back millions of years, covering multiple galaxies, and billions of species, organic or otherwise; for something to exist entirely outside their experience, even in conjecture or legend, was unthinkable. Then again, Sari specialized in the impossible.

"Optimus, this is a big thing." Ratchet knew the young bot already understod, but it still needed to be said out loud.

"I know that, I know that," growled the Autobot leader, "but the parade is important too. It's a big deal, politically, and those same politics will make it easier for us to do our jobs." Optimus sighed, filling the COM with static. "Listen, can we trust Epidata to keep quiet on this?"

"For a while, yeah," Ratchet replied. "Poor bot's almost as much of a stickler for following orders as you are, but short of that he'll keep his speakers off."

"Good. Then we've got some time before the slag all hits the centrifuge. Come to the parade, we'll deal with all the blitz and glamour, and then we'll regroup for some serious plotting." Optimus sighed again. "I thought all the hard stuff was done with already."

"Lad, I thought the same thing when the war was over," grumbled Ratchet, "and then they went and saddled me with a bunch of youngsters barely out of their protoforms! The work is never done."

"Now you tell me," groaned Optimus. "The parade is starting at the Memorial of the Primes. I'll see you there?"

"Aye, lad," replied Ratchet as he signed off. "Optimus needs us..." he continued as he turned towards Sari.

"I know, I heard," interrupted Sari. "Channel Autobot," she explained as she tapped the sides of her helmet. "Found it when I was flipping through stations a few weeks ago.

"Well then, do you need a ride, or...?"

"Nah, I think I got this," replied Sari as she kick-started her jetpack. "Meet you there!" she cried as she opened up the throttle, shooting into the air like an arrow from a bow.

* * *

Up in the sky, far above the glitz, dazzle, and chrome of Cybertron, Sari felt free again. The people below were nice enough to their diminutive hero, even if they sometimes had trouble hiding their nausea, and the planet was pretty enough, if you liked metal; but the hard alloy world of the Autobots was too harsh for her sensibilities, and even the nicest bots had trouble keeping her from getting underfoot. She was tired of the smell of oil and rust, the bland taste of Energon sucked through a straw, and she missed the color green. Cybertron was...nice, if you wanted to visit, but it wasn't home. As she spotted the familiar, towering figure of blue and red, she resolved that she would be back on Earth within the week, chowing down on a bot burger next to her father.

"Hey Optimus," she called as she coasted to a hover, wary of landing amongst the stampede of feet. The plaza was filled with Autobots, both strange and familiar, and off to the side she could spot the shapes of the large, open-air transports the Autobots used as palanquins. In the plaza's center stood a gigantic sculpture worked out of some unearthly material; strung with wires, and lit from within, the statue was too stylized for her to understand, but it was obviously artwork of great importance and reverence. Even now, with the crushing crowd, no bot was willing to get within a hundred yards of the art-piece.

"Hey Sari," replied Optimus with a nod. Tall and lithe, with a powerful form clad in red and blue, Optimus Prime was a distinct shape in the crowd, even without the glittering All-Spark hanging from his neck. Most of the others were nearby, almost lost in the mob, and only her height let her see Bulkhead's dark green hide, and Bumblebee's brilliant yellow; Jazz's off-white silhouette prowled the outer edges of the party, the Cyberninja patrolling even as he enjoyed the celebration. "Where's Ratchet?" asked Optimus as he scanned the bustle.

"He's coming," she replied as she coasted a bit higher. "It's just, you know," she shrugged as well as she could in the jetpack's harness, "no wings. He had to take the long way."

"As long as he get's here on time," retorted Optimus, frowning. "We cannot afford to mess this up."

"Come on Optimus," whined Sari as she hovered closer to the nervous Autobot. "You guys are heroes! Your Council thingy is inviting you to the palace to personally thank you! Who's going to complain if some grumpy old medic bot is a bit tardy!"

"There's a big difference between being thanked by the Council, and having the Council's gratitude. I want them thinking nothing but good thoughts about us for a long while. And to do that…."

"…You can't allow anything to go wrong," interjected Sari, with only the barest traces of sarcasm. "Don't worry! Nothing can go wrong with you here Optimus."

"Thanks Sari," returned Optimus with a snort of laughter. "But if time has proven anything, it's that things are more likely to go wrong when I'm around, not less."

"Okay, maybe you're right," admitted Sari with a giggle. "But still, I don't see how anything can go wrong right…"

Optimus felt a thrill of danger as Sari's voice dwindled off mid sentence, and turned to look at the diminutive techno-organic. "Sari, what's wrong?"

"Boss bot?" she asked tremulously, looking up at the distant sky, "how many Autobots do you know who can fly?"

"Not…many. You've met most of them, actually."

"Then that over there is a very big problem," she said as she pointed a shaky finger at a distant shape high in the sky.

"What is…" he narrowed his optics and refocused the light-gathering lenses, trying to get a clearer picture…and then he felt his spark chamber drop as he finally got a clear view. "By the All Spark no," he moaned, before he let his warrior's instinct take control. He took a deep breath, feeling his chassis stretch, and switched on his COM, setting the transceiver for an all channels alert. "DECEPTICON INCOMING!" he roared, his whole body vibrating from the noise, his warning blasting through every radio in the area. He drew his weapon, the rocket-propelled axe he had been gifted with on graduation from the academy, and continued, "EVERYONE, GET TO COVER!" It took a few seconds for the crowd to realize what he had said, but when they processed it they all _moved._ A long history of war and destruction had left even the most plebian civilian with the reflexes and instincts of a survivor. Optimus could expect the plaza to be deserted in minutes.

"Optimus!" shouted Sentinel Prime, Optimus's comrade and rival, as he shoved his way out of the heaving crowd. "What in the name of Primus do you think you're doing? Are you trying to start a panic, or has it simply never occurred to you what might result from shouting spurious warnings about…!"

"Go scrap yourself Sentinel," snapped Optimus, launching into a run as he growled, "I have a Decepticon to stop."

"What are you talking about," Sentinel cried, throwing his arms into the air. "You glitch-head, all the Decepticons are…", his instincts screamed at him, and he shaded his optics for a better look, then felt his jaw drop. "SLAG!" he shouted as he slammed open his com channel. "All Elite Guard, this is Sentinel Prime requesting back-up! All bots within range, get your tail plates in gear, and get here now, weapons at the ready!" Sentinel activated his own weapon mods, feeling his shield and lance extend themselves into his hands, but then paused. His political sense told him to protect the civilians, painting himself as a guardian of the people, but at the same time he was a warrior, and the enemy was right there…then good sense intruded, and he shook the argument away as he began sprinting after Optimus. He was a member of the Elite Guard, a soldier for Cybertron; how could he ever show his face again if he let Optimus have all the fun?

"Sari!" boomed Optimus as he hit his stride, optics fixed on the approaching heavy bomber. "You need to get out of here! It's not safe…!"

"Sorry, denied!" retorted the techno-organic. "I not a helpless human anymore, and you're not keeping me out of this. I know what I can do now, and while I'm not ready for the big leagues, I can still play backup. You're stuck with me, Optimus. Besides," she continued, her voice smiling, "with my luck, I'd end up running into Megatron five seconds after leaving, without you to protect me. We both know I'm safer with you."

Optimus thought about arguing, thought about calling on her fear and guilt, but then he saw the look of determination in Sari's optics…no, he reminded himself. They weren't optics, they were eyes, her eyes, and they were looking at him with a will to match any of his warriors. "Well then," he said slowly, filled with equal parts pride and worry, "I suppose that there's only one thing left to say." He felt his battle mask draw shut over his face as he cried, "AUTOBOTS! TRANSFORM, AND ENGAGE THE ENEMY!"


	4. Chapter 4-Locks and Keys

Author Note: Well, this is an experiment. This is my second time posting an action scene on , and it's reception will shape my future writings. This is also my first time writing stream of consciousness, so tell me how I did.

_Italics: _Stream of consciousness

**Bold:** Alien Thoughts

Chapter 4

"Sentinel, protect the crowd!" ordered Optimus as he skidded to a halt, brandishing his axe. Not for the first time, he wished he still had the hammer of Ultra Magnus, but he had returned it to the Elite Guard's custody Orns ago.

"Don't order me around!" retorted Sentinel even as he moved in between the fleeing civilians and the rapidly approaching Decepticon. "You know they're probably after the All Spark, right?" he murmured as he braced himself.

"Yes, I realize that, but what do you expect me to do?" growled Otimus. "Just stand on the side lines while the Cons destroy everything? Or better yet, give it to a civilian that's a Decepticon in disguise?"

"Just make sure you don't lose that rock!" snapped Sentinel.

The plane had come close enough that the Autobots could see the double turbines, and the deep purple shell that covered the fusilage; then a barrage of laser bolts spewed from the planes turrets and there was no more time to do anything but frantically dodge. "Take cover!" ordered Optimus as he dived behind the nearest wall, Sari right behind him. The former guardsman winced as he heard the crack of laser fire against Cybertronian armor, but took comfort from the lack of shrieks; no had been seriously hurt. "Bumblebee, Jazz, scan the area, make sure there's no other Cons around!" called Optimus as he reusmed his charge. "Bulkhead, Ratch…Slag!" The medic still wasn't there, and he cursed the war-veteran's timing. "Bulkhead, you're with me!"

Ahead of him, the Decepticon pulled up just above the ground, blurring as it transformed with the cry, "FOR THE GLORY OF LORD MEGATRON!" Then the strongest and most fanatical of Megatron's lieutenants crashed into Optimus Prime and knocked him to the ground.

"Hello Lugnut," grunted Optimus Prime as he brought his stabilizers up and kicked out as hard as he could, knocking the brute away. "Shouldn't you be Stasis Lock right now?"

"The GLORY of Megatron would not allow his servants to be bound!" roared the Con as Optimus sprang to his feet; the Autobot barely had enough time to set his feet before Lugnut tackled him a second time, clawed servos locking onto Prime's axe as the two grappled. "And now, by his will, I will crush you!"

"Yeah? Well good luck with that," taunted Optimus as he shoved the Con back, and took a swipe at him that glanced off of the Con's thick armor plating. He could hear Bulkheads thundering steps approaching, but the Bot was distant yet, and Sentinel was still herding the civilians away; he was on his own, for now.

Or maybe not, he realized, as a blast of blue white energy impacted with the side of Lugnut's head, knocking it to the side. "Hey, Cyclops!" she shouted. "Why don't you pick on someone your own size!"

"AAARRGGGH! LITTLE PEST!" bellowed Lugnut as he tried to take a swipe at her, only to stumble as Optimus kicked him in the knee. The Decepticon locked him back into a grapple, growling as several more orbs impacted with his chassis. Then, in a move that surprised both of them, Lugnut bodily picked up Optimus and hurled him at Sari; she managed to kick in her jets just enough to raise herself above Optimus's flailing body, but the Autobot still clipped her legs, sending her spiraling to the ground.

"Sari!" shouted Optimus as he rolled to his feet, placing himself between the girl and Lugnut. "You're going to pay for that," he growled as he moved to attack. Then a starburst of pain erupted in his lower back, and he fell to his knees as his legs abruptly stopped listening.

"I think not," retorted Lugnut as he watched Optimus collapse, the Autobot's back smoking from the touch of a sniper's laser. "And now," he roared, grabbing the All Spark hanging from Optimus's neck, "I claim this power in the name of the all powerful MEGATRON!" He kicked Optimus away, shattering the chain that bound Optimus to his treasure, and bellowed in triumph. Then Bulkhead's weapon came whirling in, and Lugnut was forced to duck the wrecking ball, before leaping away from the stream of lightning Bumblebee sent his way. He sneered at them both, and roared, "And now I shall destroy you all!"

He leaped into the air, and flew high above the plaza, brandishing the All Spark in his claw; the alien device sparked, and then began to glow, radiating energy fierce enough to arc off Lugnut's body he vanished within its brilliance. "IN THE NAME OF OUR GREAT LEADER, THE ALL POWERFUL MEGATRON!" With the scream of a thousand voices, a torrent of pure energy erupted from the crystal, burning the air itself as it roared directly at the fallen Prime.

Later, Sari could never explain why she did it. Everyone eventually waved it off as a heoric instinct, but truthfully she only realized she had moved when she landed in front of Optimus, her arms spread wide. And as she watched the oncoming torrent, she heard in her head a voice which cried '**NOW**'. The thought wasn't hers, couldn't be hers, she realized, and then there was no more time for thought or worry as she cupped her hands before her and caught the beam between them.

There were no words. None. There could never be words to describe such thoughtless sensations, where the mind shut down and there was nothing at all except the experience, the phenomenon fizzing in her bones. She had felt a hint of it the first time she had touched the All Spark, and again when she had upgraded herself; but now she could finally touch the true nature of the Spark of All Life, and she would never be able to tell a soul how it felt to touch the energies of a god…

Then the beam was gone, her body crackling with the touch of smothered lightning, Lugnut and Optimus and everyone staring at her in shock; and she could feel those alien thoughts again, showing her what to do… the pulse blasters in her palms opened up as her body thrummed, channeling pure power into her hands, focusing on the enemy hovering above her, and then the air was spit by the peal of thunder as the sky was lit blue, and Lugnut was knocked tumbling away, the shining All Spark falling from his claws.

And in the distant Cybertronian skyline, beings who swore neither allegiance nor loyalty to Megatron, but had gathered to watch his fall in guarded affection or wary respect, bore witness to the touch of a creature neither human nor machine, who touched the power of Cybertronian gods, and then gave it back. And suddenly, a meaningless girl from a minor planet, became very important indeed.

Optimus's response was as instinctive as it was immediate, launching one of the grapplers hidden in his arm to coil around the All Spark and pull it away; the jagged crystal hit the ground hard enough to bounce, rolling to a stop a little ways away.

"Slag it, Prime! I told you not to lose that thing," shouted Sentinel as he moved to join the fight, only to be outstripped by a Cybertronian in vehicle form, who raced past him in a barely visible blur. "PRIME! Incoming Decipticon!"

"I see it!" retorted Prime as he charged for the All Spark, knowing he was never going to beat the speedy Con there.

The Decepitcon slid to a screeching halt even as it transformed, grabbing for the glittering crystal… only to shriek in rage as Sari Sumdac blurred past, awkwardly grabbing the crystal in one hand as she hit afterburners. The Con moved to grab her, but Optimus crashed into it instead, pummeling it as he roared, "Get the All Spark to safety!"

She acknowledged his order as she opened up the throttle, pushing the jet pack as far as it would go.

"ARRGH! You will not escape the wrath of MEGATRON!" bellowed Lugnut as he recovered and saw Sari's escape, transforming back into his plane form to pursue her. She in turn struggled to keep her Jetpack under control; it was built to be controlled with two hands, and she was having trouble flying it while carrying the All Spark at the same time.

"C'mon, c'mon," she complained as she struggled to control the harness one handed. "I need you to work with me here!" She felt a tingle in her fingers, then a surge of energy, a weak echo of what she had experience before, and suddenly her Jetpack was moving like a part of her own body, responding to thought alone. "Hah! YES!" She kicked the jets into top gear, and rocketed into the forest of buildings around the plaza. 'Safe,' she thought for a brief second, before she heard the crash and crunch of shattering metal. Behind her, Lugnut blasted through the remains of several buildings, turbines roaring as he pursued his dimunitive prey. "Slag," she cursed as she jetted away.

Sari was more agile and maneuverable than the bulky Lugnut, able to easily fly around and through the city's skyline. But the Decepticon was _fast_, far faster than she was, and he could simply plow through buildings she had to go around. Then he started shooting at her, and she had to dodge laser bolts on top of everything else, all while keeping her grasp on the All Spark. "Die in the name of the noble Megatron!" the Decepticon roared, and she cursed in her thoughts as she opened up the throttle as high as it could go, soaring _up over the dimunitive building in her way, then down in the alley where Lugnut's wings couldn't fit, too much derbrie to dodge so spin off into a main avenue, jinking side to side to avoid the turrets, then straight through the neon sign between the two tallest buildings, kicking off the jets to drop straight down away from Lugnut's missile assault, kicking the flames back on to streak over a polished roof, then curve to the left to try for a forest of wires that could stop the Con dead…_

Sari had been practicing intensely with her jetpack ever since she had received it, under Optimus's advice and orders, until even Jetfire and Stormfire had admired her skill; flying it here was easy, after weeks spent practicing in the far more crowded metropolis of Detroit. But Lugnut had literal centuries of experience under his belt, and guns enough to fill the air with a hail of lasers, so the Con felt no surprise, only a feeling of satisfaction as he watched the pesky techno-organic crash into the roof top, her jetpacks right stabilizer a smoking ruin.

Her impact with the roof was hard enough and fast enough to leave her breathless with pain, but even that was drowned out by the sheer agony in her right arm. She looked at it, and whimpered as she saw the ruined wreck that was left of it, shattered Cybertronian tech poking out through scorched flesh. 'Spark.' The thought slammed into her, numbing her torment as she frantically looked for the place where she had dropped the All Spark. She stumbled to her feet and scrambled over to it, latching onto it to try and drag it away. She flinched at the clang of metal feet hitting the roof, and looked up at the towering shape of her pursuer.

"I…I won't let you have it!" she shouted defiantly. "It's not yours," she declared, words welling up from a place she couldn't see. "It's not yours, and I won't permit someone like you to take it, and use it how you wish! It is not! Permitable! Not…aiugh!" she cried as Lugnut carelessly knocked her to the side.

"And now," he declared as he raised the recaptured All Spark in his fist, "I will finish the task of DESTRUCTION that my lord MEGATRON has bestowed upon me! Starting with you, you pesky Organic. You will not defy the All Spark a second time!" he roared as he brandished it at her. She closed her eyes in anticipation of the blast and roar of pure Energon…only to open them when she heard the sound of Lugnut's cursing instead. "Why isn't it working," he snarled, shaking the crystal in his claws. "Blast her, slag you!" He brandished it at her a second time, to the same lack of result. "What did you do?" he finally growled, locking his optics onto the prone girl. She struggled back to her feet as the Decepticon stomped towards her. "WHAT DID YOU DO!"

"I don't know what you mean!" cried Sari as she backed towards the roof's edge. "I'm not doing anything!"

"What did you do to the All Spark?!" roared Lugnut. "I can feel its energies, locked inside, but I cannot reach them! I cannot use them! You said," he growled accusingly as he pointed a claw at her, "that you would never let me use it."

"I don't know what…" the rest of her explanation was lost in the roar of engines as a harrier jet streaked over her head, whirling into the gray and purple shape of…Starscream?! No, she realized, as she heard the newcomers grating, feminine tones, this was one of his clones.

"What's taking so long?!" she demanded as she perched on a nearby building with a steepled roof. "You have the All Spark! We should go, before the Elite Guard gets their collective processors out of their tailpipes!"

"No!" argued Lugnut. "This…organic has somehow tampered with the All Spark, making it useless!"

The feminine clone bared her teeth in a snarl as she berated her partner. "Did it ever occur to you that you might not be able to use it because you're stupid?!"

"I used it to almost incinerate Prime," retorted Lugnut. "And even now I can still feel the power within…I just! Can't! Touch it!"

"Fine, then we'll take the girl too! As long as we go! Now!"

That kicked Sari into gear, and she turned and fled for the edge of the roof. Ignoring the cries of surprise from the Cons, she reached the end and threw herself over, trusting in what Epidata had told her; 'They'll activate when the time is right.' "C'mon, c'mon," she muttered as she reached for the mental switch that had lain dormant ever since her disastrous first upgrade. "Any time would be good", she cried as she watched the not so distant ground race up to meet her. Then the switch clicked, and she was no longer falling, she was sliding, feeling the blades of her energy skates cutting into the walls of the building to turn her plummet into a headlong dash. "YEEEEESSSSS!" she cheered as she shoved off the wall, flipping around to launch herself down the alleyway she had landed in.

"Change in plans," declared the female clone, eyes narrowing as she watched the techno-organic jet off in a cloud of dust. "Get the All Spark to a place of safety. I'll get the girl." And then she leaped off her perch and let her new shape come upon her, feeling her gears and wires twisting into the shape of a jet as she roared after the fleeing girl.

END NOTE: Okay, before anyone says anything, it was rather stupid for Optimus to keep the Spark during the battle. He had his reasons of course; he didn't trust the elite guard to keep it for him, he couldn't afford to trust the civilians, and trying to hide would just be asking for trouble. But yeah, he could have handled that better. And now, he gets to handle the consequences.


	5. Chapter 5- Breaking

Author Note: Wow, this is a short one, isn't it? Luckily, I decided to make this a double update, so I didn't cheat my readers. Anyway, this chapter comes with a another stream of consciousness, as well as a not insignificant amount of violence. Seriously, don't read if the mention of blood makes you nauseous.

**Bold**: Alien Thoughts

_Italics_: Stream of consciousness.

* * *

Chapter 5-

It had been several long months since Sari had last felt the hum of her power skates beneath her feet, but the movements still came to her as naturally as running over open ground, like she had been riding them since the day she was born. She was grateful that this was so, because in her headlong dash away from danger, there was no time for practice, mistakes, or hesitation.

_Up the wall and then launch over the gap between buildings, ducking wires and signs even as she jumped up higher to cut into a side street, riding the railing down to street level and picking up speed with every second, spotting a set of stairs dead ahead and withdrawing her blades to set her feet and jump, using the middle stair to vault up over the rest of the steps and sliding back onto her skates with perfect timing…the buildings around her begin blurring with speed, and only her fears keep her from laughing aloud at the sheer rush…_

Instincts and a glimpse of moving shadow made her cut to the side as her pursuer hurtled out of the sky to crash to the ground, leaving a crater in the street. "You're going to have to do better than that, you female Starscream wannabe!" Sari taunted, darting into a side-street.

"The name is Slipstream," snarled the Decepitcon as she launched herself back into the air. "And you haven't seen the start of what I'm really capable of!"

"Good luck with that," snorted Sari as she launched herself up into a gap between a pair of towers, a place far to narrow for the Con to fly through. "Eat my dust," she chuckled as she accelerated…and then desperately hit the breaks, skidding to a halt and desperately leaping to the side to avoid the gigantic spider that had dropped down from the surrounding buildings. "Slag!" she cursed as she stumbled to a halt, back to the wall.

"Hello there, child," hummed the enormous arachnid as it prowled closer to her, before it blurred into transformation.

"Blackarachnia," replied Sari warily as she eyed the femme, the first bot she had ever met who shared her nature as part Cybertronian, and part…something else.

"So you do remember me," purred the Decepticon with a toothy grin. "I wasn't sure if you would, seeing as how the last time you saw me was when you tricked me into going in circles on that frozen lake, and then got me thrown off a starship to crash into the ground a half mile below." The hybrid chuckled at the flash of fear that flickered across Sari's face. "Oh don't worry, I'm not here for revenge. It was a good trick after all, and I wasn't exactly playing fair. No, I'm not here to hurt you, I'm here for your help." She kneeled down before Sari, putting her optic sensors in line with the girl's eyes. "You see, I heard some very interesting stories about a young girl that is only half organic…" She looked Sari up and down as she continued, "Rumors I can see are true. And now you hold the energies of the All Spark as well…that's right, I saw you absorb that blast. I think that you could be my salvation, the cure that I'm looking for. So, what do you say?" she hissed.

"**No. Never.**" Sari did not realized she had spoken the thought aloud until she saw Blackarachnia's face twist with rage.

"So be it then," growled the Con as she brandished her claws. "I'll just have to take what I want from you the-ugh!" The half-breed was buried in an avalanche of metal as Slipstream hurtled into her, pinning her to the ground.

"That girl is mine!" shouted Slipstream as she lined up her wrist blasters with Blackarachnia's processor.

"That girl is getting away," the hybrid spat back, jerking her head at the place where Sari had been; a rising cloud of dust showed where the girl had boosted up over the shortest building and rocketed away. "Listen," demanded Blackarachnia as Slipstream moved to pursue. "She's too fast for us to run her down, and once she reaches the Autobots, we can't reach her! I don't want to keep her, I just want to use her to get back to normal. Help me do that, and you can keep the blasted whelp!"

"Fine!" snapped the clone as she jetted up into the air. "But keep up!"

"Which way, which way," muttered Sari, as she peered up at the buildings.

After her hurried escape from Black Arachnia, she no longer remembered which direction led back to Optimus, and she had not managed to get high enough to spot the plaza from where she was. Then she heard the clank of metal on metal.

"HAH!" crowed Slipstream as she struck from hiding, reaching from a dark gap to grab at Sari. "Got you now…Slag!" she cursed as Sari leaped neatly out of her grip.

"Still gotta do better than that," taunted Sari as she launched herself directly away from the Con, only to cry out as a something struck her from behind and pinned her to the floor; only luck kept her arms between her head and the ground, to prevent her helmet from impacting with the street. It still hurt. "Ack!" she cried as she struggled "What?" she moaned as she recognized the iridescence of Blackarachnia's webbing…and when she turned her head far enough she could see the hybrid herself, perched in spider form at the perfect place to catch a young techno-organic speeding recklessly past.

"You were right," laughed Slipstream as she stalked towards the helpless girl. "That was ridiculously easy. Stupid little creature wasn't expecting us to work together, now was it? And now it's all mine!"

"Ahem!" Blackarachnia coughed meaningfully as she clattered closer.

"Don't worry, I'm willing to share," sneered the clone. "But when you're done, I'm going to make this pathetic sack of carbon pay for all the trouble it's caused me."

Sari struggled uselessly under Blackarachnia's webbing, utterly helpless. She couldn't break it, she couldn't wiggle free, she couldn't even try blasting it with her hands stuck underneath her. "No!" she cried as she watched the pair stalk closer. "No! Stay away from me!"

"Stupid girl," mocked Slipstream as she circled to Sari's head. "You don't have a choice in the matter. Not now, not ever after. You're mine now."

"Let me go, or else…you're going to be sorry!"

"Heh heh, how cute," chuckled Slipstream as she kneeled down next to the girl. "I hate cute," she snarled as she jabbed a talon into Sari's shoulder. Blackarachnia clicked her mandibles in disapproval, but made no move to interfere as the other Con slowly impaled the half-human through the shoulder of her damaged arm.

"Argh! Aigh!" howled Sari as she writhed against her bonds. "Stop it! Please, stop it! Stop i-Aieee!" Her back bent into a bow as the tip burst back out of her flesh, howling at the top of her lungs, "Go away!" In the throes of her rage and pain, Sari had no hesitation, no doubts about the power that flooded into her body from a source unknown. She simply let it out, and _shoved_.

The air above her burned blue for the space of a heartbeat, and then cobalt lightning broke the street around her into shards as a concussive wave of energy burst from her body. Blackarachnia and Slipstream, too close to dodge, were knocked flailing away, already unconscious when they hit the walls. The webbing that bound her was promptly incinerated in the blast, and the Techno-Organic felt a wave of cool wash over her, damping the pain of her injuries and helping her thoughts focus. She finally, finally remembered the cluster of towers that marked the center of Cybertron, and the sight of the one they called the Turret, so tall and close that it loomed over the parade ground like a mountain of steel. Clutching her right arm with the other, she wobbled to her feet and activated her skates, clutching at a nearby pipe for balance, then wincing as the metal self-detonated at her touch, the distinctive effect of All Spark overload. "Slag," she breathed as she looked at the destruction. She kicked off the wall, sparking a second explosion as she began gliding away. "Got to find Ratchet", she whimpered. "Soon. Gotta find him soon."

* * *

Closing Statement: You know, I just noticed that the Fanfiction site does not have a function for colored text, or differences in font, which is too bad; the original version comes with color coded text, to help differentiate the…oddities. Oh well.


	6. Chapter 6- Wrath and Destruction

Author Note: This is part of a double update! If you're just skipping to the last uploaded chapter, go back a page. Otherwise, you'll be wildly confused. And don't forget to tell me what you think, because that helps me get better.

**Bold**: Alien Thoughts

* * *

"Where are all these Con's coming from," demanded Optimus Prime as he hurled away the petite Decepticon who had been busy trying to dismantle his stabilizers. "Did we have jailbreak you never told me about?!"

"Well, we never managed to capture most of the Decepticon army, just the officers, and Megatron!" replied Sentinel as he blocked a fusillade of blasts from a trio of tanks. "Many of them were still running free, and it looks like they all came here!"

"And Lugnut?" A quartet of swordsbots moved to menace Optimus, and he was forced back into a posture of defense. "I personally saw him put into his cell! How did they get him out?" An Autobot he had never met before came to his rescue, downing three of the Cons with a single move, allowing Prime to knock the fourth away with a powerful axe blow.

"They didn't! He was being transferred, some initiative to make sure that the Con's couldn't rescue the entire command chain with one break out, like that disaster with that circus! Chatter says that the convoy was hit by a pack of Starscream clones!"

"Slag! You should have told me!"

"I didn't know!" protested Sentinel, stumbling away from a tremendous Con wielding a war hammer. "The Bot in charge didn't want to bother me! No one told me anything until _I_ told _them_ I was already fighting half the Cons in the quadrant!"

"Oh no you don't Sentinel," growled Optimus, blocking a sword blow with his axe haft. "No way you're pushing this off on your subordinates. You wanted to be the Magnus, that means you get the responsibility!"

"But I'm not the Magnus!" cried Sentinel.

"What's that supposed…?" Optimus turned to confront the Bot, but spotted a trio of extremely well armed Cons, who were all aiming their weapons directly at him. "Scrap," he muttered as he watched their weapons began to glow…and then his mouth dropped open in astonishment as the formation of Decepticons was blown apart in a blast of blue, launched flailing away to reveal the tiny form of Sari Sumdacc, skating her way through the throng. "Sari! It's too dangerous here!" shouted Optimus as he started hurrying towards her, "And I told you to take the All Spark…!"

Optimus choked as a pair of Cons began to charge, aiming to run right over Sari to reach their real opponent. He tried to react, tried to charge to her aid, or grab her with his grapplers, or do something, anything…and then he felt his jaw drop as the young girl casually threw her hand out and let loose a wave of blue energy that blasted the Decepticons away as easily as leaves in the wind.

"Optimus," the girl moaned as he reached her. "I'm in trouble." He winced as he got closer, and got a better view of her. Sari's right arm was a wreck, mangled circuitry poking out through the tear in her elbow, and a gaping hole in her shoulder that leaked a mixture of blood and Energon. Her body shook gently, as if she was cold, except that bolts of energy kept erupting from her skin to arc wildly over her body, and he could see a trail of partially melted metal that came all the way from outside the crowd to where Sari stood now, trembling on her skates. "Where's Ratchet? I need…his help."

"He's not here yet," replied Optimus, trying to keep the worry from his voice. "And I…can't raise him on the radio. The Cons are jamming the signal."

"But…Optimus, I think I'm going critical again!"

"I can see that, but there's nothing I can do!" snapped Optimus as he spotted a Con charging at Sentinel. "Listen," he said, worry leaving his voice harsh, and "just hold yourself together until Ratchet gets here, okay? In fact," he suggested as he lassoed the charging Con with his grapplers, "try letting it out! Blast some Cons! It might keep things from building up!"

"Okay," whined Sari as she pointed her hands at the densest bunch of Decepticons and let loose.

* * *

Ratchet felt the crunch of rubble under his tires as he maneuvered desperately across the street, trying to avoid the barrage of lasers from the Con stalking him from above.

"PRIME!" he shouted as he burst from the enclosure of the buildings, directly into the battle that raged through the plaza. "PRIME!" The medic managed to spot his leader whaling away on a pack of Cons, and skidded into a ninety-degree turn to reach him, barely keeping his to his tires as a quartet of missiles disintegrated the road behind him.

"Optimus! I've got the All Spark!" roared the medic as he raced towards mighty Autobot. "I'VE GOT THE ALL SPARK!" His declaration immediately caught the attention of every Decepticon there, but the Autobot was moving too fast to catch, and his allies immediately moved to block the Cons from his path.

"And I've got Sari!" retorted Prime, ducking a blast of energy. The fury of the battle shifted, and Ratchet caught a clear view of the techno-organic, still venting all-spark energy. "Get her and the All Spark to safe-WATCH OUT!"

Alerted by Optimus's warning, Ratchet spotted a parade of missiles almost on top of him and transformed, skidding past Sari as his electro-magnetic grapplers came out and activated, waves of magnetic energy grabbing the body of a downed Con and hurling it into the missile's path. [BOOOM!] The subsequent explosion made the medic stumble back a step, and filled the air with smoke, which was torn apart by the furious passage of the Decepticon. Ratchet felt his optics widen as the plane transformed into it's familiar hulking form, and Lugnut hurtled down at him, fist cocked, too fast to escape, too close to dodge.

When Sari heard Ratchets voice, she felt a surge of hope. Finally, someone who could help her was here. Then Optimus cried out in warning, and she felt her breath stop. The medic's headlong skid took him right past her eyes, and she had a perfect view as he blocked the missile strike with an unfortunate Con…and then she saw Lugnut blast out of the smoke like a meteor. The Decepticon had his arm cocked back, ready to wield the fatal explosion within his fist, and Ratchet was caught entirely by surprise. At that distance, at that speed…she had seen how powerful Lugnut's ultimate attack was, and there was no way Ratchet could survive it, not at point blank range.

* * *

She could escape the destruction with a simple jump, and the other Autobots were all out of range; they could all survive if she just abandoned the medic…so why was she charging to put herself in the path of the attacking Con, both hands raised despite the shards of pain, mind scrabbling for something, anything, everything she could do.

It was stupid, charging in like this, without a weapon, without a plan. She couldn't blast him before he could attack, she couldn't access her other weapon mods fast enough to make a difference…but that's what Ratchet had done for her, she realized. That's what all the Autobots had done for her, and for those other people in Detroit, time and time again, dashing in despite the desperate odds to try and save her, and everyone else who needed their help. And this time, the one who needed help was Ratchet. How could she abandon him, without at least trying to **protect him**?

Once again she felt the alien thought come from someplace else, but she let it pass through her mind without contest. This time, she wanted it to show her what to do. So she let the tendril of consciousness reach through her psyche, reaching for something she didn't see…and then suddenly she knew exactly what to do.

She felt the energy the All Spark had gifted her surging in her heart, and she let it loose, feeling it flooding her body, her limbs, her hands… her forearms opened up, the circuitry beneath glowing a brilliant cobalt as the All Spark energy rushed from her arms. A wave of blue sprang from her fingers, billowing up before her into a wall of pure power, as thick and tall as the ramparts of a castle; a defense as strong as any Cybertronian could boast.

It wasn't enough.

Her next thoughts were of pain and fear and flame and force, the tumbling of her limp body as the thunderclap rolled her across the ground. Her body was numb, her thoughts blasted away, but she could feel sensations of…loss across her arms, her side, her face…and she felt a thrill of worry when she spotted a small leg lying next to her head; but she was too tired to be truly afraid, too tired to stay awake. She spotted a blotch of red that hovered around her, and then a blur of red and blue rocketed past, roaring something she couldn't understand. 'That was Optimus,' she realized, trying to smile with lips she couldn't feel. 'He'll handle it. He'll handle everything.' Satisfied, she let her eyes drop closed, and drifted off into the dark.

* * *

Twenty Megacycles. Just over a year and a half, in human terms. That was how long Optimus had known Sari. He could still remember the first time he had seen her, and come to her rescue. He could still remember the first time she had joined them in battle, and had come to rescue him. He could still remember all the times she had thanked him, or smiled at him, or laughed with him…and now he would forever remember the sight of her body, burnt and broken, swatted away by a Decepticon's hand like a broken toy. He would always remember the sound of her scream, and the way his spark had died at the sight of her blood. She had been the bravest among them, in a band of people to whom courage was second nature…and now that courage had led her into danger he could not rescue her from.

From the corner of his optics, he saw Ratchet reach Sari's fallen body, and scoop her up, carrying her away, All Spark abandoned in his haste, and felt a thrum of satisfaction. The medic would take care of her, keep her safe, better than anyone else could. Optimus, on the other hand, had an entirely different task.

"LUGNUT!" he thundered, stampeding towards the one responsible for hurting his family. "LUUUGNUUUT!"

"PRIME!" bellowed the Con in response as he spread his arms in challenge. "I will destroy you now, the name of the great MEGATR-AUGH!" The Con never even saw the first blow; he just felt the blade of Optimus's axe blasting past his arms to crush into his torso. The Autobot did not relent, lashing out again and again in a rage, too fast and powerful for Lugnut to stop. The Con stumbled away from a lightning uppercut, then lashed out with one servo, and caught a counterblow in his other hand, feeling his feet skid back from the powerful blow. "You cannot defeat me," he rumbled, "for I carry the glory of…"

"SHUT! UP!" the Autobot raged, and Lugnut heard the roar of rockets as Optimus's axe bit into his chest plate and knocked him high into the air, far above the puny buildings around the plaza. The Con watched in shock as the Bot pursued his airborne form, the rocket in Optimus's axe leaving a trail of flame behind him with every step, and felt an emotion he thought he had buried a lifetime ago. He felt fear.

Optimus let the haft of his axe lengthen as he hurtled towards the sky borne Con, shoving the staff deep into the ground and triggering the rocket again, pole vaulting himself high into the air, far above the hapless Lugnut; somehow, he flipped his weapon in his hands, the tip of the handle clasped in his servos with the axe-head far down below. "AAAAAARRRGGGGGHHHH!" he roared mindlessly as he triggered the rocket one last time, harder than he had ever done before, feeling his weapon tearing up through the air and over his head as the weapon lengthened further and further, centrifugal force lighting the head of his axe aflame.

Prime looked at his enemy, hanging helpless below him, and he remembered the sight of a broken Sari. Then he brought his weapon down; with all the power of his mechanical body, all the flames his weapon could birth, and all the anger that filled his spark, he struck like a wrathful Cybertronian god. The air was filled with the sound of his blow, the Decepticon's scream drowned out in the wind of his passage as the axe drove him down, down, down; down out of the sky, down through the tower that waited below, down deep into the ground made of steel and Cybertronian metal. And then the plaza was quiet, as silent as a grave, save for the sound of rubble that tumbled from the crumpled structure, and the crash of Optimus's landing. The Autobot stalked towards the collapsed building, the forces of both armies parting before him like flames before the gale, and then he was at the ruins, peering down into the crater, where Lugnut lay, battered and broken, but alive.

"Lugnut," murmured Optimus Prime, the name falling from his lips a curse. The Autobot hefted his weapon and glared the Con; arm gone, legs crushed, chest casing cracked open, but it wasn't enough, because he could still see Sari's broken body whenever he looked at the Con, and she had suffered far worse than he had. He bared his teeth in a snarl as he stalked Lugnut's body, lifting his axe higher with every step, until he towered over the fallen Decepticon, weapon raised like a guillotine. "For her," he groaned as his body tensed to bring the blade down.

"I…", Lugnut struggled to form the words, speech slow and pained as he moaned, "I…surrender."

And Optimus froze.

* * *

Closing Statement: Well, I hope that was appropriately epic for a battle conclusion. I've always felt that a lot of shows fail to show Optimus's awesomeness, and i hope to fix that. So yeah, Optimus is taking a level in badass; but don't worry, he's staying a softy at heart...I think. Anyway, it'll be a while before the next post, so don't get too worried if I go dark for a few weeks. And please, let me know what you think! I improve with your criticisms.


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